Attaching button



April 25, 1939. F O N 2,155,496

ATTACHING BUTTON Filed Oct. 23, 1937 f/7V6/7 for 7760 0. Lane mm m 21:12.,

Affor/veqs,

Patented Apr. 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE ATTAGHING BUTTON Ind.

Application October 23, 1937, Serial No. 170,567

1 Claim.

This invention relates to means for detachably securing one member to another such, for example, as a radiator cover to the grille of an automobile radiator or the like. It is a primary 6 object of the invention to provide an extremely simple attaching means which may be readily operated but at the same time may not be removed without a special tool in order to prevent theft or unwarranted removal of the attached 10 member.

A further object of the invention is to provide a neat appearing attachment without unsightly projections. These and other important objects and advantages of the invention will 15 become apparent to those versed in the art in the following description of one particular form of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Fig. 1 is a front elevation of the invention an as applied to a radiator cover:

Fig. 2 a rear view in perspective of the attaching member:

Fig. 3 a rear view in perspective of an operating tool:

Fig. 4 a top plan view of an attaching element inserted through a cover:

Fig. 5 a similar view with a tool applied to stretch the attaching element inwardly, and:

Fig. 6 a like View of the attaching element in engaged position.

Like characters of reference indicate like parts throughout the several views in the drawing.

Referring first to Fig. 2, a body 10 is formed by coiling wire into cylindrical shape. The inner r end of the wire forming the coil is bent sharply to pass diametrically across the inner end of the cylinder to have its end I2 bent forwardly, in the form herein shown, to be parallel substantially with the side of the cylinder Ill but spaced therefrom.

The other end of the wire forming the cylinder I is bent around to form a head having a diameter exceeding that of the body It. In the form herein shown, this head l3'is formed by carrying the front end of the wire around in a helix to have the turns therein spaced apart but in a common plane.

In using the attaching element thus described, the hooked end 12 is inserted through a hole provided in the member to be mounted. For the sake of showing one particular application of the invention, and in no manner limiting the scope of the invention, this member to be attached is described as a radiator cover M. The hole through the cover I4 is preferably bounded by a grommet I forming a close but sliding fit with the body I0, Fig. 4. The head l3. forms a stop bearing against the forward side of the grommet.

In order to operate the device, it is necessary to engage the hooked end I2 around the rear side of some radiator element such as a bar 16 5 of the radiator grille. This engagement is accomplished by inserting a suitable tool through the cylinder If! to push rearwardly on the bend l l to carry the hooked, end l2 back upon the bar 16 and then rotate the bend l I so as to bring the other end l2 around behind the bar IE to permit the tension in the body Ill to pull the bend H forwardly to the position as indicated in Fig. 6. In other words the various coils of the wire forming the body l0 make up a spring member which will compress the cover i4 rearwardly by the head l3 toward the grille bar l6 while the hooked end I2 is engaged as described.

A suitable tool for operating the attaching ele- 20 ment is illustrated in Fig. 3 and comprises a metal bar I! having a slot l8 entering from one end, of a sufficient width to permit that end of the tool to be inserted through the cylinder H] to have the slotted end of the tool straddle the bend H. The tool is provided with a turned over end l9 as a handle by means of which the bar IT may be turned to bring the hooked end l2 around behind the member IS. The tool is of course withdrawn after the hooked end I2 is seated against the bar Hi. It is evident that the cover M cannot be removed from the forward side without emplozying the tool again to release the hooked end I While I have herein shown and described my invention in the one particular form, it is obvious that structural changes may be employed without departing from the spirit of the invention, and I therefore do not desire to be limited to that precise form beyond the limitations as may be imposed by the following claim.

I claim:

An attaching button comprising a single piece of spring wire coiled in a central hollow neck yieldingly extensible, the end of the wire at one end of the neck leaving tangentially therefrom and thence being outwardly helically coiled in a common plane to extend normally around that end as a flat head, and the other end of the wire at the opposite neck end being bent diametrically across that neck end normally of the neck axis to terminate at an appreciable distance beyond the side of the neck, and the other free end of said diametrically bent end being bent toward said head in the nature of a hook.

FREDQLAN'E. 

